Newspaper Page Text
V
Jewish prisoner searches
for his ‘religious roots’
by Arlene Peck
Recently I received a letter that
had been sent to the Atlanta
Jewish Community Center and
forwarded to me. It was from
Robert Schneider, a young man
who wrote that he was the lone Jew
in Reidsville Prison and presently
serving three life sentences plus
ninety years. Now, that is a long
time!
He wrote to say that he felt
completely cut off from the world
(and, from all that I*ve heard about
Reidsville, that’s understandable)
and desperately looking for his
“Jewish roots.”
I wrote back, “What's a nice
Jewish boy doing in a place like
that?" I also advised him to contact
the Jewish agencies for their
bulletin notices and maybe, write
The Southern Israelite for a
subscription so that he might keep
in contact somehow with the
Jewish community.
• I spoke with Dennis Seigle, an
attorney who has handled cases of
several of the inmates and who was
-present at Schneider’s trial.
According to Seigle. Robert was
the ‘hit man’ for the murder of
three gays connected with a
niteclub feud last year. He watched
Schneider at the trial and said, “He
was a nice looking guy, kinda long
hair...looked like any other college
kid.” At least he did until he got up
and spoke about the killings,
according to Seigle, then he
seemed cold and detached with he
described them.
This whole question intrigued
me. I wrote back asking, would he
want coverage of his case and
history? At the very least, I said, he
might get a “pen pal” (literally) and
not feel so isolated from the
outside world. What would make &
Jewish boy do something so
terrible that he would end up
deeply steeped in crime? How
could he end up a killer? Well, he
could and did...bufwhy?
“I really dotiNTT bout
my Jewish background,” nc wrote.
That’s probably the key sentence in
his whole letter. “My parents
passed on when I was very young.”
He went on to relate that his father
spent 32 years in the army
and although they moved around a
lot he spent most of his adult years
in Georgia and calls it home...even
if it does not seem to reciprocate.
His background was a violent one
and he was reportedly jailed for
trying to firebomb the United
States Army Reserve Head
quarters Training Center. This was
after he had been, according to
Schneider, “booted out of the
Army” for refusing to go to Viet
Nam. For this he received six years
and served his sentence in the
Federal Prison in Tallahassee, Fla.
While out on parole for that crime
he allegedly committed the
murders and was sent to Reidsville
to spend the rest of his natural life.
He states, “I’ve never been the
good Jewish boy. I split from home
at an early age, a very early age,
and didn’t return. I know my
heritage, am proud of it, and yet,
not very aware of it.” He even
admits he’s looking for his “roots.”
It’s a shame someone didn’t
instill them in him earlier. May be if
he had known his Jewish
heritage...and grown up aware of
it, he wouldn’t be living, as he
states, “Right next door to the .
gates of Hell!”
When he speaks of his family he
says, “I am 25, but feel twice that at
least. I’m married and have three
little ones, a boy and two girls. I
love them desperately, and so will
let them forget me.”
I wonder how he could have that
emotion for his family and
callously describe how it was
“incidental that the man had two
companions with him at the time
we (three of us) abducted him...so
thats about it!”
I find it difficult to sympathize
with someone who apparently
cold-bloodedly took the lives of
three human beings. I do think that
as a Jew he is entitled to certain
things that our religion
teaches...the right to religon being
one of them. At the institution
where he is now and, probably will
be for the rest of his life, there is no
contact or knowledge of fellow
Jews. I asked what arrangements
he had made for Passover, and
received this answer, “No, there is
no Passover here. No special food,
nor rabbi to spell out its
importance. Just lonesome me....”
Does a Robert Schneider
deserve our compassion? I think he
does, if for no other reason than
that’s what our religion teaches. 1
think he is entitled to religion that
he seems to be searching for now.
Harry B. Paul, Photographer
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Page 9 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April 14, 1978